Missionary Update: John Mark & Judy Hatcher in France [May 2015]
Missionaries John Mark and Judy Hatcher have been serving the Lord in Tournefeuille, France since 1999. They define their ministry as “disciple-making.”
May 7, 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
During the month since I last wrote you we have covered a lot of miles and seen evidence of God at work in the USA as well as in France. We arrived home last Saturday night after being away for 13 days. The Tournefeuille church meets in our home so we couldn’t sleep in on Sunday morning! It was good to be back with our church family here in France.
The return trip began in Lexington where we participated in two important events. Both of which were a delight and the cause of much thanksgiving on our part. The first of these was the Spring Conference hosted by Thompson Rd. Baptist Church. It had been six years since we last attended this conference. The fellowship was great, the singing was great, the food was great, the messages were great! The theme: Knowing Christ and Making Christ Knows was aptly addressed and we are encouraged by what God is doing.
John & Alta Hatcher with some of their family, including all their children who remain on earth.
As we were waiting for the beginning of the first service just inside the entrance to the church’s home we were nearly knocked off our feet by the surprise (to us) arrival of Mary and Vince Watson, faithful members of Emmanuel Baptist Church during the last 10 years or so of our ministry there. Words can not describe the delight this evoked in our hearts. I had also noticed that Pastor Steve Hall was to speak. This intrigued me for two reasons: First, I didn’t think Steve was in the loop of Baptist Faith Missions, and secondly, I didn’t know he was a pastor! As it turned out, it was the Steve Hall I we knew who was at the Conference with his lovely wife, Deb (formerly Terrell). We were able to renew our acquaintance and review what God has done and is doing. And, these two couples were just four among many wonderful friends in the family God that we were able to visit with. Time was just too short! Thanks Thompson Rd. Church and all the others who worked so tirelessly to be the conduit used by God to provide all of these blessings.
John A. Hatcher celebrating his 90th birthday!
The other great event we celebrated in Lexington was Dad’s 90th birthday. He was born in Alexandria, KY. just a bit north. What a delight to be there for this wonderful occasion and to review with family the innumerable blessings that we have received from our dear Heavenly Father. We were able to visit with many family members from four generations that we had not seen in a long time. During two weeks I was able to visit with my parents and all of my siblings who are still on earth. What a feast and foretaste of heaven! I am including a picture of the birthday celebration.
We hit the ground running here in France. There have been services and Bible studies every day since we returned and each day has been packed with other things that needed to get done. The list is still not exhausted, but this helps us not notice the jet lag so much.
While in Lexington, we received the message that a young lady, who is in the same community choir as I, came on Sunday bringing her two children. I have had the opportunity to talk about the Lord to her and she seems quite interested. She said she enjoyed the meeting and said she would be back.
Thank you for your participation in our lives and ministry.
Rejoicing in France,
John and Judy Hatcher
4, rue d’Aspin
31170 Tournefeuille, France
JMHatcher[at]aol.com
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Missionary Update: Mike & Beverly Creiglow in Brazil [May 2015]
Mike and Beverly Creiglow have served the Lord in Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil together since 1971. In addition to pastoring First Baptist of Cruzeiro do Sul, Mike builds his own boats and frequently travels up and down rivers to share the Gospel with those who have never heard.
May 6, 2015
Dear Brethren,
We just got our first update on the new work and missionaries at Jordão. As you may recall, we just sent them to the city of Jordão a couple of months ago. Idevaldo tells us that they have already had 9 professions of faith.
The crowd gets ready to leave after the last service at First Baptist Church of Santa Rosa.
Bev and I visited the church at Santa Rosa this past weekend. They had a weekend meeting to celebrate their 16th anniversary. It doesn’t seem possible that it has been that long. They went through some really tough times, but now are doing extremely well. We gave them one of our home grown and trained guys, Guima, to be their pastor. He is doing a great job. They have a big piece of property on the main street. Their lots are even bigger than the Catholic church property. The building is bigger, too. They had the building packed out all three nights. On Sunday night there were well over 200 inside and I could see that outside there were probably that many, too. The building is fixed up real nice and even has air conditioning! Guima was still at home at First Baptist when we had our 80th celebration. We baked 80 cakes for the party. He did that with his folks at Santa Rosa on Sunday: 16 cakes. Bev and I stayed over for a late dinner with them after church. We got home at 11:30PM. Good stuff.
The children of the church at Santa Rosa presented a program for their 16th anniversary.
Things continue to go well at our home church, too. Attendance has been growing month after month. We grew another 50 overall in April. We averaged 1031. We were over 1000 every Sunday. This was a first for this year. Nice and even, but building each of the 4 weeks. There have been 13 people saved since I wrote you last. Last Sunday (May 3rd) we had baptism and the Lord’s Supper. I baptized 21 new members. This time all of these were teens and adults, which is a little unusual. We usually have at least a few children.
The 21 new members of First Baptist Church of Cruzeiro do Sul who came by baptism on May 3.
On Thursday night we started a new, more rigorous candidate’s class for those who had asked for baptism. For some time we have been concerned with the quality of the teaching given to the candidates. Also, we have been really concerned about the number of folks who have been baptized and not attending regular services. Last year we gave our chapels (8 of them scattered around town) permission to hold Sunday night services. We noticed that instantly those folks dropped out of sight. Not good. They need to be in church on Sunday morning, when much of the teaching happens. Anyway, I taught this new candidate’s class, all 2 hours and 20 minutes of it. All of our pastors and chapel pastors were present. We had 40 people take the class, but only 21 were baptized. That tells me a lot. I will teach it again next month, but after that the other pastors will take their turns.
We are really building up our training, course studies and disciplinary actions. We are already seeing results. Dauro had a weekend retreat with all of his youth leaders. I had one with all the adult leaders, too. We have unified the materials used in the small groups. For now I am producing the lessons. Also, I make up a daily meditation sheet for the whole church. This contains weekly Scripture memorization, daily meditations and daily Bible readings to read through the whole Bible in the year. If your Portuguese is up to it, you can follow on Facebook, “Meditando na Palavra”.
Andrew is recovering. Any gifts are still in order. Thanks for all your prayers.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support. God bless you as much as He has us.
In Christ,
Mike Creiglow
Mike and Beverly Creiglow
Caixa Postal 24
Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil 69980
mdcreig [at] hotmail.com
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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher on Furlough from Brazil [May 2015]
Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.
May 5, 2015
Dear Brethren and Friends:
This past month has been one of many special blessings of the Lord. To celebrate my birthday of ninety years our children planned a four day cruise. It was a marvelous four days of loving fellowship with our children and their spouses. God has given us a wonderful family and we praise Him.
GREAT SPRING BFM MISSION CONFERENCE
We thank God for the wonderful BFM Mission Conference at the Thompson Road Baptist Church. The love shown in your fellowship, the messages, and the food and hospitality made it one of the best Conferences I have ever attended. Thank you, Pastor Dave Parks and People!
TIME FOR A SMILE
The life of a missionary is not always easy, but Jesus is always with us and gives us time for a smile from time to time. Sometimes these smiles come from the differences in the languages we learn. The other day I was in the line at an Hamburger shop waiting to make my order. I was about the sixth in line. The lady behind me sneezed. I turned and said “Gazuntight”, that I thought meant, “Bless you!”
“Thank you very much,” she replied, as she moved to the front of the line. “Oh, well,” I thought, “you cannot win every time.”
Another smile was caused by a missionary who needed the toilet. The door was closed and he knocked lightly and a voice replied. “I am using the toilet. Will be out in a minute.” The missionary meant to say, “Me desculpe,” (Pardon me, I am sorry.) But he answered, “Da-licensa!” (Let me come in.) He erred slightly in his new language.
Then there was the foreigner who was learning to speak English. Doing something that he asked permission to do. (“Excuse me.”) However, he said “Exqueeze me!”
“Thank you, Lord, for the little smiles that You permit to come our way.”
Sincerely in His Name,
John and Alta Hatcher
John A. and Alta Hatcher
15905 Mercott Court
Clermont FL 34714
229-529-8497
jhatcher1925[at]gmail.com
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Missionary Update: The Radfords in Kenya [May 2015]
Nathan and Carrie Radford serve the Lord in Kitale, Kenya. Their main ministries include indigenous church planting, a prison ministry, and a hospital ministry for mothers with premature babies.
May 5, 2015
Dear praying friends,
Another month has come and gone, and there is much to report about. The ministries are continuing along, and I will be sure to give you regular updates through the year, but I thought this month I would focus on things that have been happening in Kenya recently, as well as share family requests.
As many of you know, a few weeks ago, in a town called Garissa, a terrorist attack took place at the university. I am not familiar with this area of the country,
as it is on the other side of Kenya, but it was shocking to watch the events unfold and the news reports. Terrorists stormed into the university in the early hours, executing around 147 people total. The siege lasted for several hours before the attackers were subdued. I read stories of students who hid in closets, or wherever they could, until the attack was over. This attack follows the attack at Westgate Mall in Nairobi a few years ago. Please pray that these terrorists would be caught, brought to justice, and for the peace of Kenya. We know the Lord is in control, sovereign, and we trust Him through all situations. A verse that comes to mind is John 14:1, which says “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Please pray for all the families affected by this act.
Also, in Kitale town, as I mentioned recently, it has become much more difficult to drive. The main bus/van stage has moved from another part of town to an area close to downtown, right where all the traffic must pass. Of course, when this happened, there was a lot of frustration, as traffic is much more congested and it is more challenging to drive and pass. At one point, when this first happened, we stayed home for a day as they were sorting out the problems in town. There were trees cut down and laid in the road, some riots broke out and other things were going on. The situation was brought under control the next day or so and things seem to back to normal. My understanding is that the new stage will only be in this location for a year or so until a new stage is built. Please pray for the safety of the missionaries as they have to pass through this area, and also that there would be no more problems among the council people and van drivers. We trust the Lord for all these things.
In closing, it has been quite a last few weeks for our daughter Camille. What a blessing she
is to our family and she has been through it recently. She kept complaining of stomach aches and so we took her to two different medical offices about it here in Kitale. She was given medicine each time and the problem temporarily went away. However, the stomach pains would return after a few days, so it was very puzzling and frustrating as the doctors in Kitale were unable to find the root of the problem. Yesterday we felt it best to go to Mediheal Hospital in Eldoret, about an hour and a half from Kitale. The pediatrician there seemed very qualified and did a thorough examination. He explained that although some of the amoeba was gone from her previous infection, there were still cysts from the host that had not been removed. They had a very good lab and were able to discover this. We have started her on a different medicine and she seems to be improving. Praise the Lord! Medical care here is such a challenge and we would really appreciate your prayers for our health as a family, as it is so easy to get sick, and as in Cami’s case, it takes a while to get solid answers. Health here is a daily battle and we do our best to stay healthy, but sometimes these things happen and when they do, it can be difficult to find the root problem. A comforting verse through times like this is Psalm 46:1, which says
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” What a great God
we serve.
We appreciate you each so much and will keep you updated.
Serving in Kitale,
Nathan and Carrie Radford
P.O. Box 4150
Kitale, Kenya
East Africa, 30200
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Contributions: March 2015 [for April 2015 MS]
Offerings given in March 2015 are recorded in the PDF below
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Mission Sheets: April 2015 [PDF Version]
The April 2015 issue of the Mission Sheets is now available! Get your advanced PDF copy of the April 2015 Mission Sheets at the link below.
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Missionary Update: John & Alta Hatcher on Furlough from Brazil [May 2015]
Missionaries John and Alta Hatcher have served the Lord in Brazil since 1955, planting over 70 churches that are still in existence.
March 26, 2015
Dear Brethren and Friends:
We greet you in the Name of our gracious Lord Jesus. We have enjoyed a great month of His blessings that He has supplied through the love of Paul and Wanda. God has given opportunities to witness personally to persons we encountered in the stores and streets. Please pray the seed sown will bear fruit to His glory.
The outstanding event of the month was the Memorial Service of Alice Joyce Wacaser. She is the mother of missionary Bobby Wacaser. The service was held in the Ahava Baptist Church, Ahava, Florida. The service was a blessed testimony of her dedicated Christian life given by her children and friends to an audience of several hundred people.
Other than several children, she is survived by 28 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren. The songs sung by her children revealed the joy, happiness and spirituality of her life and the wonderful effect on the lives of her children and their families.
The life of Alice was a spiritual blessing to her children and to all who knew her. She will be missed but she awaits all her loved ones and friends in her home in glory. It will be a joy to meet her there!
May God give us the Grace to influence others as Alice Joyce Wacaser has.
We thank you for your love and prayers in the Name of our Lord Jesus.
John A. and Alta Hatcher
John A. and Alta Hatcher
15905 Mercott Court
Clermont FL 34714
229-529-8497
jhatcher1925[at]gmail.com
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BFM Spring Conference 2015 Updates
We are in the middle of our 55th Annual Spring Conference in the interest of Baptist Faith Missions. If you’re not able to attend, we invite you to follow conference updates on our Facebook page here.
If you are here with us, we’d love for you to post what God has been teaching you during the conference, what’s challenged you most, and maybe even post a few pictures of the precious saints God has gathered. (And we do have an unofficial hashtag for the super technologically savvy to use if they wish. #BFMSpring2015)
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